With a tentative contract in hand, West Coast ports are easing their way back into full production, although the performance of longshoremen Monday was not consistent up and down coast, according to the Pacific Maritime Association.

An on-again, off-again dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and ICTSI, operator of Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland, once again shut down the port’s only container terminal for two days this week.

Total container traffic at U.S. West Coast ports declined 2 percent in July compared with the same month last year, confirming the predictions that importers and exporters would divert some of their cargo to Canadian and U.S. East Coast ports due to longshore contract negotiations on the West Coast.

A U.S. appellate court panel ruled that as many as 2,300 FedEx Ground drivers in California and Oregon were employees, not independent contractors, when they worked for the package delivery company in the last decade.

The agreement reached late Tuesday pertaining to health care was the latest and clearest indication that the 2014 West Coast longshore labor negotiations are playing out in a way no one expected: They are peaceful.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association released a joint statement on Tuesday saying they have come together on at least one topic, and a highly contentious one at that: health benefits.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with grain handlers in the Pacific Northwest, spelling the end to an embittered, two-year battle between the two parties and allowing the union to focus on still-unresolved coastwide container talks.

Now that the Port of Portland has taken away the jurisdiction of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union over the handling of refrigerated containers, the port authority is warning the leadership of the powerful union that a further loss of work opportunities could follow if productivity does not improve.